The world-wide churning ferment of human thought, the contentious strategy of ideologies, the self-interest of nations and of groups within nations, the endeavors of some to advance the common good, and the determination of others to delay the forces of human progress, all these evidence the inability of the human mind to find within itself the solutions for the problems it produces.

But the issue becomes clearer as time passes. Though multiplex in expression, it is simple in essence. It is reality versus unreality, divine intelligence versus carnal-mindedness, Mind versus matter, good versus evil. Of course no person, group, or nation can claim to be a paragon of righteousness. In the consciousness of all there is some light and some darkness, but the common enemy of each and all is the evil material mind. The all-wise, all-loving Mind, or Principle —that is, God—is the common friend of all.

The Master made the first petition of the Christian's prayer, "Thy kingdom come." The carnal mind, ignorant, selfish, and afraid, resists the appearing of Mind's kingdom, but that appearing will not be stayed. From east to west, from north to south, the veil of material-mindedness is being increasingly tattered with shafts of spiritual light, exposing the wrongs in the political, ecclesiastical, economic, and social realms of human thinking which must be corrected with ideas that proceed from Principle, divine Mind, God.

If we turn thought back a page in history, we find millions of young men and women leaving their homes, vocations, and education to give of their best efforts to defend that way of freedom of life which fosters progress and individual human betterment. Their efforts, combined with the efforts of those at home, accomplished the defeat of evil's physical forces of aggression, empowered by the human will.

But there are today more problems than one would like to number, dangerously delaying and threatening to defeat the common desire for a world assured of enduring peace. The fervor of patriotism in defense of one's country does not now call to military service, but the need is imperative for mustering all the forces of righteousness to counteract the destructive, delaying forces of self-will and lust for power that would stay the march of human progress.

What can you and I do? We can see to it that a day does not pass without our giving some time to specific prayer for the common good. We can, with the understanding that Christian Science has given us of God, man, the universe, law, and government, contribute mightily to lessen fear, suspicion, rivalry, and distrust among the nations. We can help to bring to light the trust, confidence, co-operation, and good will which evidence the appearing of the activity of true Mind in men.

The basic evil, mortal mind, claims it has evolved a material sense of life and man, and established a material order wherein are many minds, many wills, many groups with rival interests. These it impels to contend with one another, conspire against and distrust one another, believing thereby to advance its self-interest and enthrone its human will. But mortal mind has no chance of success or continuance. By its lack of intelligence and substance it is doomed to failure and consigned to oblivion. God, the one eternal, positive Mind, and His universe, or manifestation, of infinite ideas, the highest of which is man, is untouched, unaffected, and undisturbed by the frictional, fratricidal, and fictitious forces of material thought, preying on false selfhood.

Only what is eternal is real. Only what is everlasting can last. Only what is absolutely true and intelligent can endure. The cause of all that really is, is self-existent, self-sustaining Mind; and the true life, consciousness, substance, and identity of every individual stems from, and is wholly subordinate to, this one and only causative Principle, power, and presence. There is no insubordination, no mesmeric lie of self-interest, no willful determination to rule through ecclesiastical or political power that can, by hook or crook, make headway against the eternally enthroned sovereignty of Mind over its entire Love-united family.

Says Mary Baker Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 331), "Midst the falling leaves of old-time faiths, above the frozen crust of creed and dogma, the divine Mind-force, filling all space and having all power, upheaves the earth."

Where mortal mind says it is rampant we can, with understanding of the eternal universality of divine Mind and its forces, say: "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 139: 8–10).

The troubled world, the stalemated nations, the envy, criticism, and contention of rival groups, are the scene of mortal mind's making. This scene is unsubstantial evil, truthless, substanceless, godless, powerless, and the Word of God is ours to subdue and annihilate it.

We can help by realizing the intactness of God's Mind-governed kingdom, where unity not division, wisdom not will, Love not fear, govern every thought, word, act, and relationship of man. This kingdom is the only kingdom; Deity is its only lawgiver and sovereign. Mortal mind and its transient sense of life, law, government, and man cannot become a substitute for it, cannot either supplant or supersede it, cannot hide or obscure it by any curtain of falsity.

The men who represent the larger nations will gather soon in another conference of foreign ministers, perhaps the most critical of all postwar conferences in its effect on the immediate future of world stability and peace. In reality they are our brothers in the one great family of being. They, like us, derive their only true nature, consciousness, life, and ideas from the one Mind, God. They live, as do we, to represent the eternal sovereign, the originator and enforcer of the lawful forces by which the unity, order, and harmony of creation are assured.

Let us consciously and joyously accept our place as citizens of God's kingdom, and, with the power of His Word daily realized, bring to the efforts of these men and their nations, whose people are eagerly desiring lasting peace, the omnipotent power of omnipresent, omni-active Mind, which makes all, contains all, and governs all with the forces of intelligence and Love.

Paul Stark Seeley